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Making this work in the suburbs Archives

Quick post on why walking is wonderful. Worth a few minutes to read. :) I feel that my children (and myself!) are at our best, our most creative, our most curious, our most inspired, after we’ve spent time outside, moving, breathing, walking, working!

Since moving from the suburbs, I haven’t written as much about how to make unschooling work there, but it is still very important to me. I vividly remember the extra creativity required to make it work in an environment that wasn’t quite as “natural” as the woods we now live in. Here are a few random…

“Any parent who has punished a child by taking away TV privileges and then watched that child play–slowly at first, then imaginatively, freely–will recognize the connection between time, boredom, and creativity. ‘There’s something about television–maybe that it provides so much in the way of audio and visual stimulations that children don’t have to generate very…

We’ve recently begun letterboxing, and we have had so much fun so far! Here is the basic idea: Find a letterboxing site or app (boxfinder, clue tracker, and box radar are a few) to help you locate a letterbox, or a trail of letterboxes. Each child (and adult) needs a book (notebooks or bare books…

If you live in an urban or suburban area, you may ache for more nature and natural experiences for your children. (My children at Crown Hill Park and Wildlife Sanctuary, tucked away amongst a neighborhood just outside of Denver.) Many cities and urban areas have set aside nature preserves and acreage to remain natural, and…

I know I’ve referenced this book in my post about hiking with kids, but I use this book so often I felt it deserved its own post. Best Hikes with Children in Colorado has been an invaluable tool for us as we have sought to take our children out of the suburbs and explore the…

Part of giving a very natural learning experience to our children while living in the suburbs is hiking. We are blessed to lived in Colorado, which has an abundance of mountain and prairie trails. I think you will find, in any state you live in, that there is an abundance of nature to be found,…

Last week, we were having one of those days. Everything was frustrating and nothing I had planned for the day was working out. The kids were feeling a little trapped inside. The youngest was sick and a lot of my attention had been focused on her. I sent the kids outside to get some smooth…

There’s a path behind our neighborhood. Like many neighborhood paths these days, it cuts through land that’s been scraped for development, and nothing too natural is left. It’s a nice little path, but there’s so much construction right now that it’s littered with chunks of cement and random wooden posts and wire. Plus, right now,…

This summer, I wanted to make one of the giant water bubbles I saw floating around on Pinterest. They looked so fun. And it was fun, albeit much more complicated than Pinterest would have me believe. My circumstances made it more complicated that in normally would have been. We’re in a rental home at the…

One of the most important things I’ve felt since we being unschooling is that I want my children to have a life full of nature. I want them to learn as naturally as possible. One problem. We live smack dab in the middle of suburbia. And though I hope and pray that someday that will…

About me

Welcome! I’m Ann. I’m blessed with one amazing husband and six incredible daughters. We have embraced unschooling, and this is a place to collect and share our thoughts with others who may be interested in a more natural way of learning for their family.